Seaweed - Seaweed ep

Year: 1990

Label: Tupelo Recording Company

When I left my hometown to attend college, I was pretty much balls deep into hardcore. I had the band t-shirts, the cut-off camo shorts, the fanzine collection, and the condescending attitude to prove it.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I had bummed a ride halfway home to Charlotte where my buddy Rob and is girlfriend were going to pick me up to go home to play a show (with Avail no doubt). I get into Kris' car, and we're talking about some shit or another, and I ask, "have you guys ever heard this band Seaweed?". They looked at each other, started laughing, and then made fun of me for "going to college and getting soft", or something to that effect.  

The funny thing was, I knew exactly what they meant, Seaweed dared to infuse their punk with melody, and had nary a mosh part in sight. Maybe I was getting weak. Was college really where I needed to be? Was it hurting my hardcore bona fides? Shit.

In retrospect that exchange is pretty ridiculous for a few different reasons, the most of which being the obvious resistance to change we all had, but also because Seaweed really weren't all that different than the other bands I had been listening to. They were loud, and brash, and sloppy, but just the simple fact that they snuck those catchy melodies into the songs...well, that was enough...I as a pussy. 

Rob also hated my affinity for Archers of Loaf, but that's a different story. Oh, and he was also fucking my girlfriend at the time, which was pretty uncool, but...what are you gonna do? 

This 12" collects the first 3 7"s the band released.

DL

Fuckemos - Black Helicoptors

Label: Man's Ruin

Year: 1998

By request I believe.

An Austin-based oddity brought to you by dudes from Sugar Shack, Hamicks, Jesus Christ Superfly, and Cherubs among others, with the sole purpose of weirding you the fuck out. Imagine the psych-punk-metal that permeated the Texas musical underground back in the Eighties and Nineties. Got it? Okay, now imagine you took the instruments used to produce that psych-punk-metal, and you exchanged them for children's toys and pawn shop guitars. Still with me? Great, now imagine you purchased an album made on these instruments, but before you could listen to it, you accidentally left it on the dashboard of your car on one of those really hot, shitty ass, humid summer days. And then, even though the record is all warped and still bubbling from the heat, you want to listen to it. Fine, that's your prerogative, but, before you do, you snort a 1/2 cup of cough syrup straight into your nose. Um! Now, and only now are you allowed to sit back and enjoy this music. This music of Fuckemos.

DL

Cows - Sorry in Pig Minor

1998, Amphetamine Reptile

1. Cabin Man
2. Finished Again
3. No, I'm Not Coming Out
4. Dear Dad
5. Eurekal Funday!
6. Death in the Tall Weeds
7. El Shiksa
8. Life After Beth
9. Saliva of the Fittest
10. Felon of Troy
11. Say Uncle

http://www.mediafire.com/?bzim23jp13m



I was surprised to see that "Sorry in Pig Minor" by the Cows hasn't been posted here yet. I've actually been meaning to post this for a while. Not only is it a fantastic album by the wonderfully wierd, noisy, eclectic, schitzophrenic, Cows - but this particular album was produced by none other than Buzz Osborne. (I know what you're thinking.. Who the hell is that?)

Highlights of this album have to be "Finished Again", "El Shiksa" and of course "Cabin Man", which is a pretty fucking brilliant story about a cockroach. Sound wierd? What else would you expect from the Cows?

Abe Vigoda - Skeleton

Label: Post Present Medium

Year: 2008

This is a relatively new release, and I always have mixed feelings about posting newer material, but I've been listening to this one a lot lately (admittedly, I'm pretty late to the game) so I wanted to share. But, if anyone associated with this release has a problem, let me know, and I'll take it down.

Everything I heard about the band referenced "No Age" and "The Smell", and while I'm sure Abe Vigoda would like to go about living their lives out from beneath the shadow cast by No Age, it's a reasonable starting point to discuss the band. Both share a penchant for skewed pop by way of echo chamber punk. Frenetic, but murky and detached. Do you know what I mean? It's hard to explain, but the results are pretty clear cut. You get to view the band through a pair glasses that are all kinds of fucked up. They're scratched, they have shit smudged on the lens, and the prescription was all wrong to begin with. The view is vaguely familiar, but nothing is quite in focus. In a good way. Nothing is quite in focus in a good way.

I don't know, I guess if you like No Age, try these guys. If you don't like No Age, try these guys as well, maybe it will tickle your fancy. 

I didn't do a very good job selling that one did I?

DL

Tar - Over And Out

Label: Touch And Go

Year: 1995

The final will and testament of the late great and much lamented Tar. As with their entire canon, it is impeccably performed and recorded, restrained when necessary, bombastic when warranted. An understated masterwork.

This record touches on all the different sounds that made up Tar, from the earlier post hardcore rumblings, through the noise rock attack, into the grungy pop darkness, and finally the refined math rock. It's not that simple of course, as Tar never seemed to be, but, if you ever liked what they had done before, this record pulls it all together in a nice neat bow.

DL

Tad - Texas Chainsaw Assault

Label: Alien

Year: 1994

This strange collection is a bootleg of live records dating from 1992 and 1993 recorded in Los Angeles. So the sound quality, while well above average, is not consistent from track to track, but the song selection more than compensates. Then, you get some random studio tracks tacked on to the end, mostly singles, but there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to what songs were included or why.

Whatever, it's a fucking Tad record, get it.

I feel like I remember seeing this in record stores upon it's release, so I'm not real sure what the story is/was, and I know this isn't that difficult to find on the internet, but again, it's a fucking Tad record. 

DL

monster voodoo machine - suffersystem

released 1994

i was listening to ministry and i got to thinking "you know...there isn't enough of this band on the blog"

then i went through the back issues of SGM to see what had been posted by the band

and in the comments section of the skatenigs album STUPID PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BREED (al jourgensen produced the album)...one of the blog's multiple anonymous posters mentioned this band...and then i thought "hey...i have an album by them"

so rather than post a ministry album...you get this

some of you may remember them...some of you might not remember them

i remember picking this up out of a used bin back when it had come out (i think i picked it up because of the album's cover...you may recognize seeing some of the artist's other work on random old school metallica stuff...and i think i may have heard the song "fetal position" on some sampler that came in a magazine)

but you don't need my history with the band/album

this was canada's answer to ministry and later white zombie (actually...i guess they could still be canada's answer to both bands as they got back together in 2007 after splitting up back in 1998 and are supposedly working on a new album)

and i'm also going to provide you with a video of the band covering the quicksand song "thorn in my side" live

so hopefully by you seeing the words "cananda" and "ministry" and "white zombie" and "quicksand cover" you've made up your mind and are gonna give this a little action

DL: suffersystem

big baby - 2007 demo

i don't really know much about this band...i found this while randomly looking around the interwebs

but what i do know is this trio is from new orleans (but sounds as if they could've came from that seattle place circa the early 90's)...members of the band have been part of various other new orleans bands (eat a bag of dicks...the faeries...just to name a few)

listening to this you can hear some early nirvana mixed with some melvins and quite possibly some mudhoney

so now you know what you're getting

so get it,dig?

DL: 2007 demo

the hal al shedad - self-titled

released 1996

file this under the heading of: found buried under a bunch of crap on my computer

i've been giving my computer a colon cleansing of sorts for awhile now...and i keep unearthing all kinds of things that i'd forgotten i had...so there'll be all kinds of goodies and whatnot showing up here in the future

now...i'm not gonna waste words coming up with some sort of description about this band/album...but what i am gonna do is point you in the direction of someone that can give you all kinds of info...someone on the inside...and that person goes by the name of james joyce (some of you may have noticed him popping in at the SGM orifices from time to time)

i was a little hesitant about posting this album...as it's posted over mr. joyce's blog as well (it's called BEYOND FAILURE...you can find a link over to the right...and i suggest that you go and check it out)...i kinda feel like i'm stepping on some toes by putting this here...but i'm thinking there are a few of you out there that have never heard of the band...or have ever heard this album...so hopefully i'll expose some of you to something new (as opposed to something old...if you know what i mean)

and there's another reason for my hesitation...as we all know...grAy likes to prattle on like an old man that never has anyone come to visit him at the home about all things related to bands in atlanta (he fancies himself somewhat of a star of the scene there...a real belle of the ball)...but something tells me by just saying this i'm opening myself up for something

but enough outta me...go over yonder

DL: the hal al shedad

Castor - Castor

Label: Mud

Year: 1995

And here's the "other best emo record of the Nineties". Castor's self-titled first album. It has the same elements that made Boilermaker great, but these guys were slightly less bombastic (if you can consider Boilermaker bombastic) in their delivery, their songs slowly churn away. They never fell victim to the boring "slow quiet part into big loud part" rudimentary school of dynamics either. When they build a song, it's a genuine climb, and when they release tension, it's even more rewarding because of it's earnestness. Bottom line, the song writing is second to none.

I only saw them play once, opening for Braid at the Driver Dome here in Atlanta, and they fucking blew me away. Braid should never have even stepped out on "stage" after them, that's how good they were. They had an honesty and integrity to their music that set them apart from the other bands of that ilk. They seemed to could have cared less if you were into it or not, they were still gonna play as hard as they could, and maybe you would catch on by the end of their set. None of the ridiculous posturing, or falling down and rolling on the ground that emo bands began to incorporate in their acts, just real, straightforward rocking. 

They have a second album which is just as good, and when they broke up they formed a few other really good bands (National Skyline being the only one I think we've posted here), but they never could capture the spirit of Castor again.

Hail mid-90's emo! And not the Endpoint kind, or the Frail kind, or whatever...I mean this kind!

DL